January 3, 2023 • 43 mins
This week, it's my conversation with singer/songwriter Wax Mekanix, based in Philidelphia, about his former early 80s cult rock band 'Nitro' (not to be confused with the late 80s glam band out of L.A.), starting a solo career in the early 2000s, his new album 'Mobocracy: Deluxe', other projects, and more! More about Wax Mekanix:
http://linktr.ee/waxmekanix Wax Mekanix on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/WaximMekanix
http://linktr.ee/waxmekanix Wax Mekanix on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/WaximMekanix
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Nobodies Are Somebodies. Hey, Everybody'sChad Advice. Welcome to another edition of
Nobody's Are Somebody's Podcast. It isa brand new year of twenty twenty three.
If you're just listening for the firsttime in twenty twenty three, or
if you're listening in the future,thank you so much for doing that.
(00:21):
In the future, we're flying carsexist. We've been saying that since the
seventies. You know, I lovedoing uber Eats, as many of you
know, because things are going wellin my life and it's a great hobby.
It's a great pastime that I enjoyoutside of regular work, and of
course doing the podcast, doing theeighties radio show, doing the Nobody's radio
(00:43):
station. I love doing these things. And one of these nights I was
out and about. I was pickingup a popular burger joint, No,
not that Burger joint, but fiveguys Burger joint. And I got in
my car after picking up the deliveryand I looked over at the the car
beside me, to the bit tothe to my left, and I like
(01:03):
when people have these little stickers thatsay stuff, you know what I mean.
Like sometimes people have stick figure stickers, like families they have little sayings
on their cars, not like bumperstickers, but those little stick on words
that you can put on the sideof your window or whatever. Right,
I was trying to read this lady'ssticker, and it says something about I
have kids. But then the writingbelow it was small, was too small
(01:23):
for me to read. So I'mreally trying to look at it. But
as I'm looking, I noticed thewoman in the car. I didn't realize
that, and she's looking at me, so I think she thought I was
staring at her or trying to likestare her down. So she just had
this like she just had to looklike like, what are you looking at?
Kind of thing, and I justwhatever, and I drove away.
I couldn't read the rest of it. Whatever, no big deal. So
(01:45):
I continue on with my Uber deliveries, and eventually I get to another burger
joint, Yes, that burger joint, and I pick up and I go
back outside to my car. Iput the food in my trunk with the
other crap I keep in my soyou know your food is safe. And
I uh. As I go togo around the side of my car,
(02:06):
who pulls up beside me this vehiclethe same one I was trying to read,
although I didn't quite realize it atthe time. But before I had
a chance to really react, sherolled down her window and she says to
me, Oh, it looks likeI have some new competition now. She's
an Uber driver Uber delivery driver.And I was kind of like taking it
back because A. I didn't inspecther to speak to me. B I
didn't inspect to ever see this personagain. And see I didn't quite know
(02:30):
what she was talking about. Butthen I realized quickly eat all this all
happened within two seconds in my brain. But of course I'm telling you now
in the story and just really makingit sound like it's a big, long
process, but it's not. I'mlike, oh, yeah, I said,
is there a lot of competition forUber? And she's like, oh,
I'm just joking. And then she, you know, when got her
food and I got on my carand left. But I wonder if she
(02:52):
thought that I was like staring herdown, thinking that like, oh my
god, there's more Uber drivers onthe road, like what are you doing
here? Like maybe she thought Iknew that she was an Uber driver,
and that I thought that because there'smore drivers there's less calls, which is
a thing, and there's more driverson the road. There's less chance for
you to get a call, right, which makes sense. Same with taxi
driving back in the day. Themore cars on the road, the more
(03:12):
dispatcher had to deviate the calls,divvy up the calls to different people,
right, and there's less chance forpeople to get as many calls, and
there's more drivers on the road.That makes sense. So maybe she thought
I was like, I don't know, staring down my competition. I don't
know. Maybe I'm overthinking. Itdoesn't matter. This story doesn't matter.
But you know what does matter,my guests coming up here. Wax Mechanics.
Happy to have his conversation, toget to know him. We've been
(03:37):
talking about having a conversation for alittle while previous to this, and now
we finally have a bit of astory. We only had a select amount
of minutes because he had another interviewto get to and I was a little
bit late trying to get my equipmentset up. So shame on me and
shame on him for having another interview. Just kidding, but I hope to
talk to him again in the nearfuture and have a more extensive conversation.
(03:57):
But here's a good thirty to fortyminutes with Wax Mcare, a Philadelphia great
musician in an old eighties cult bandcalled Nitro. Not the glam band Nitro,
but another one that you may notknow but you can get to know.
And he's a solo artist since thetwo thousands, released some music.
His latest record is a Biocracy,the Deluxe Edition on Electric Talent Records the
(04:19):
USA. It's out there now,check it out. Great songs, great
music. There's a Manchester Strawberry Blondeis one of the songs. Head.
Oh, there's a really great songthat's I heard it before we talked,
and it's just escaping me right now. It's a really cool song I love.
But yeah, it's one of myfavorite songs off the record. And
(04:40):
now I can't remember that's telling mesomething. But you'll hear all about it
here on my conversation with Wax Mechanics. Let's get to it now Here on
Nobody's Are Somebody's podcast with me UberDelivery chad Vice. Oh yeah, and
that was my Uber Stories for Kids, by the way, Stories of Uber
Eats for Kids with chad Vice.All right, mister Mechanics. It's good
(05:01):
to finally talk to you and haveyour conversation. How are you, man?
Heybody, Thanks for having me.This is really cool. We've been
looking forward to this for a while. Yeah, so I appreciate you.
Thanks. Yeah, yeah, forsure. There's a lot to get into.
There's so much about you that Idon't know, obviously, there's so
much. There's only a little bitI think I've discovered, so I can't
wait to get you to help mefill in those details. When I first
(05:25):
came across your music, I thinkthe first song I ever heard of yours
was a great, big anthemic songcalled Victorious Victoria that was sent out to
me. I don't know if itwas by you or your record label the
time. It's been a while ago, But is that where it started for
you? Where does where does WaxMechanics story start? Basically, let's go
right to the beginning and we'll gofrom there. Well, we're going to
(05:48):
try to be brief, so bearwith me. Here here's the abbreviated version.
As you can tell, I'm notin my early twenties. So I
started my music career in the earlyeighties with an American cult rock metal act
called Nitro, and we did somestuff in Pennsylvania on our own, and
(06:12):
then we got picked up by aEuropean label and we made some records and
that's where I sort of cut mychops. And fast forward to the two
thousands. After lots of playing invarious permutations of Nitro throughout the eighties and
the nineties, nearly two thousands,I hooked up with Electric Talent and did
(06:34):
a solo thing. So I waspart of and we have a bit of
a pedigree, small but real,and we started about We formed nineteen eighty
released our first record in early eightytwo, and we were coming at the
world kind of like the Metallic obviouslynot of that stature, but that's where
(06:56):
it happened. So I was oneof the primary songwriters of and as songwriters
are wont to do, we justkeep on writing. So after some songs
piled up, I hit studio againsort of solo and stretched out and kind
of did it seriously and made aserious record in twenty twenty called Movocracy,
(07:23):
and that was released by Philadelphia labelElectric Talent, and Victorious is on that.
Let me ask you, cause youmentioned your band Nitro. That's not
to be confused with the late eightiesAmerican Los Angeles band with Jim Gillette Nitro.
That's not the same band. Correct, That's correct. Let me just
(07:44):
qualify that by saying we started innineteen eighty and we were sort of new
wave of British heavy metal influenced threepiece loud Seiran slamming certainly not glam and
although I like the La Nitro andI know Jim a little bit, were
not the same. They came outof LA and did the whole Gland thing,
which was really cool for them,but that certainly not us. And
(08:07):
we weren't trying to pass ourselves offas them, and I know they weren't
trying to best themselves was us?So two different things. Common word,
I don't know how did that workwith the licensing, like the name Brian,
How did you did they like youhad it first? Did you guys
have it? Like? How didthat work? Well? There was no
there's no real squabble. I mean, we were relatively small time frankly,
(08:30):
you know, independent, scrappy,and by the time they came up,
we had stopped making records at thatpoint. So some I won't go through
the gory detail. But in short, we took a break and stopped recording
and stopped touring and still hung outas friends and played in different permutations,
(08:50):
and we knew about them and wewere digging them because we liked that kind
of stuff as well as all otherkinds of things. So we never were
in contact with him on a busines. Yeah, and Jim's voice well back
in the day for sure. Imean there's videos of them of the of
him out there breaking glass with hisvoice. There's a big deal about that.
They never got over the hump themselves. They didn't get to a major
(09:11):
thing, they didn't have a big, huge hit. Maybe a Freight Train
might have been their best known songon MTV, but they never made over
the hump. They came at theend of the other wave of that too,
so I mean, it just neverseemed to work out. So it
can kind of you can see thatparallel there a little bit between the two
bands, but different sounds obviously,just for clarity for people who don't know.
If they think, oh, you'retalking about Jim Joe, let's beend
no know we're talking about which maybepeople don't know, but it's good to
(09:33):
dig into that maybe get some attention. Did you guys have records out there
from your Nitro? Do you havelike music that's still available people can check
out? Sure? Long story shortis, if folks bump up against me,
they can find links to the there'sa Nitro band camp site that we
can get all those kinds of things. So we did some independently released stuff,
(09:56):
and then we were signed to MascoleumRecords, which sort of the a
boutique European label that did all kindsof fun stuff in the early eighties,
and then later on, like inthe early two thousands, we did some
releases with some other record companies boilBoy. So there's about five records floating
(10:20):
around out there that people can getif they want to. Simply google Nitro
and you'll find us. The albumsare called Lethal Volatile Activity. There's a
compilation called Lethal Dose. There's anotherone called do You Want to Rock?
So okay, yeah, we gota lot of stuff, but we had
a lot of stuff in the studioand a lot of reissues and digging up
(10:45):
some rarities that kind of stuff,anthology, so mostly new way for British
heavy metal, old school stuff thatwe're really proud of and a lot of
fun, a lot of fun andcertainly not the Nitro from La but we
liked that stuff too, and therewas never any anything but love between us.
And I'm digging that stuff too.It's good to hear. So so
(11:07):
let me get let me get yourtimeline correct. Then, So when you
guys broke up, I'm going tosay it's the late eighties' early nineties for
your Nitro. Then twenty twenty isyour solo record. That's a long period
of time between as far as musicaloutput, unless I'm missing something. So
what kept you busy through the ninetiesand early two thousands musically? What were
you doing or were you completely outof music? Where you checked out?
(11:28):
Well it sounds kind of arty party, but the reality is that I just
after Nitro. I you know,I was interested in other things, so
I had another career and put musicon the back burner. You know,
we didn't go on to become Metallica, so I know a lot of people
did. Yeah, yeah, soyou know that was the original plan.
(11:52):
So Mike Clark kent is as anengineer, I was always interested in that
kind of stuff. Nitro guitarist JohnHazel was also an engineer. We remained,
We remained buddies. We played alot, we did some recording,
played with other bands, did somelocal stuff. So we stopped trying to
be you know, rock stars,got a real job, but musicians and
(12:16):
songwriters just keep plowing along. Andthat was with great joy, had families
and still remain friends. And thenI was John and I were writing most
of the material for Nitro. Iwas predominantly driving a lot of that creatively,
So I just kept on writing andthe songs piled up and got a
(12:39):
little bit of an itch and somemade some connections in the Philadelphia area to
some cool studios and producers and startedto hit the studio. In between the
end of Nitro formally, which wasprobably about eighty seven and about two thousand
and eight two thousand and nine,I was simply just live in a different
(13:00):
life and playing a little bit,kicking around and bands and having some fun
and not doing it, not doingit too seriously. And then I had
a little more time and found thisoutlet here in Philadelphia that I wanted to
make some real records again, andI wanted to do it from a solo
perspective, not you know, Nitrois not done or defunct or broken up.
(13:22):
We just stopped recording and you knowwe we in twenty thirteen we released
a new single by the Way tothose records, So I gotta check that
out. Yeah, that's kind ofa skating to check go back and check
that out for people listening and forme and myself, I'm gonna go back
and have a dig into that.That sounds cool. It was a lot
of fun, and you know,it was cool to revisit that. And
(13:43):
so what I what I kind ofdo with Nitro is very focused. We
have a really narrowly defined mission statementwith Nitro. You know, it is
a new way for British heavy metalinfluence. Focused through the is the four
guys in the band, and it'sa democracy and there is a very specific
(14:05):
mission there. So we had fundoing that. I still like to do
that, and boy, parts ofmy head really need that kind of thing.
But then when I was doing myown solo stuff, I could expand
a little bit and stretch out anddo all kinds of different stuff and it
was more of a dictatorship. Sothat's kind of fun. So I went
about Yeah, in the two thousands, the songs piled up, and probably
(14:28):
about twenty fifteen, the songs startedto coalesce and focus on a particular subject,
you know, a vibe for lackof better term, that we started
feeling in twenty sixteen up through twentytwenty, and that really did put the
focus on the songs, and that'swhat really, you know, everything kind
of came together and coalesced nicely,and I said I've got a record here,
(14:50):
and Electric Towns said you've got arecord here. So bang zoom,
there we were. Did you findthem or did they find you? I
found them, and because they werein Philly, and I was really interested
in local labels, and it wasjust I kind of kept my finger on
the pulse of what was going on. And I didn't know that there was
(15:11):
this fledgling metal label and I said, these guys are cool. And I
checked out some of their music andI said I like this, and I
reached out to him, and theguy who heads the labels named Stephen Burdick,
yes, and I said, hey, man, I really like what
you're doing and here's what I'm upto. And even though my stuff was
(15:31):
slightly different than the most of thefair on Electric Talent He's like, hey,
let's do a record. I said, I'm in were you? I
know, obviously you're singing on yourstuff. You're the singer in Nitro as
well too, Right, what areyou saying? No? I was not,
I was. I was writing stuffon guitar. I was. My
role in the band was as thedrummer and a backup vocalist. Singer.
(15:54):
Is and is still the voice ofNitro is a fella named Dana kanferda On
for is this wonderful, funky organicbrew of a little bit of Ted Nugent,
a little bit of Steven Tyler,a little bit of Rob Halford,
a little bit of you know itwas he brought to it. Classic front
(16:18):
man of the late seventies early eighties, great guy, super dude. Still
my brother loved Dana, love therest of the guys in the band.
But yeah, he was doing allthe singing. Because I was going to
ask you then it sounds like youwere even doing some singing back then.
But now, of course it's you. You're the front guy. It's it's
your it's your singing, it's yourit's your it's your vision. How did
you feel doing this on your ownvocally? Did you feel like, now
(16:41):
you're stepping in front of the center, did you feel confident that, did
you have to kind of work atthat? Did you always want to be
the one singing your material? Howdid that come together? Well, everything
is in service chat of the songwriting. I mean that sounds kind of artie
party, but I'm just going tobe honest about it. My gig was
always as a songwriter. I playeddrums because I was a songwriter and were
writing cool songs. And I wasin my teens and early twenties at the
(17:03):
time, so that's like a sportingevent, you know. It wasn't so
much art as it was like asport. So I was an athlete and
still am. And I really respondedto that. I could play guitar and
harmonica and was writing. And so, to answer the question, a nitro
was fun because I served a differentrole and I was singing backing vocals there
too, and because we had thisreally cool unit that we landed on with
(17:26):
nitro. I really enjoyed having myrole as the drummer because that satisfied me,
and then I could write the songson guitar that satisfied me. I'd
go into the studio, cut backingvocals that satisfied me, So there was
nothing really lacking in Nitro for me. As a matter of fact, it
was not much different than what Istarted doing with my solo stuff stepping out
front. You know, I'm asongwriter and I wanted to do a solo
(17:49):
thing because these particular songs, Ithought I could probably do these pretty good.
And I had no great desire tobe a front man, had no
great desire to do any of that. It was all about the song.
And I know that sounds weird andcliche whatever, but there you have it.
I wrote these cool songs and Ithought I can do these, and
(18:11):
played guitar on some of them,played drums on all of them, did
backing vocals, did lead vocals,even shared some of the writing with some
buddies in mind. So if youlook closely at the credits on the record,
you'll see that most of them werewritten by me, but I did
share some of that, surrounded myselfwith some really cool pals that had an
open mind and said, hey,we'll folly anywhere and there we are.
(18:32):
That's good. That's good to hearsomewhere in the middle of that, and
I don't know, because I kindof get things mixed up because I get
a lot of music. Let's behonest. I get a lot of things
from Electric Talent, but from alot of record labels, so things come
my way. But I'm pretty sureI saw from you recently, maybe within
the last year. There was aEP that was done with you another band,
a split EP. I think headwas named it or one of the
songs on it. I think Icould be wrong. Was done? Was
(18:56):
that done just in between? Justafter? Is that the most recent thing?
Or where does that been? Inyour splitty peet with the other band
after the name of the band too, I think it's troll Teeth, Is
that correct? You got a greatmemory, brother, Yeah, that's right,
thank you. So. Yeah.The sequence of events was I was
with Nitro, got a real life, kept writing, hooked up with Electric
Talent, made Mobocracy, which wassix song EPTE with heavy snarling rock guitars,
(19:22):
bassed trump and other sort of electronicindustrial stuff thrown in there for fun.
Yeah, very focused on a scene, but it was a heavy snarl
and slam and rock record that peopleknow me for relative to Nitro. Then
I was asked after Mobocracy came outElectric Towns said hey, man, what
(19:42):
do you want to do next?I said, well, what can we
do? And they offered up thisidea of doing a split and I said,
I'm cool. Never did one ofthose. I like that idea.
It's not a compilation, it's alittle more focused. So I said,
well, who can I do itwith? And they said, well,
here are all the bands on rosterAlan you want one to be one with
troll Teeth And I said, wow, this could not be cool or because
(20:07):
I knew the songs I was writing, and I knew the songs I was
going to release next, and Iknew what Troll Teeth did, which was
really cool, really prescient, reallythoughtful, heavy stone or interesting stuff with
Moe and the boys that I liked, but it was dramatically different than what
I was writing at the time.So we got together and they brought two
songs on the EP, which iscalled Blunt Yes, and that was released
(20:32):
in twenty twenty one. I broughta handful of songs. Two songs made
it. I had some leftover,so there's basically three songs that I brought
to Blunt Now. The interesting partof this was really cool from my perspective.
It allowed me to bring songs tothis EP that were connected to Mumocracy
thematically but were sonically different. Iknow that sounds weird, and I'll be
(20:56):
burning. I get that because that'sexactly how That's exactly how it sentenced me.
I heard them like, oh,this is different. This is not
right. Because when I heard Victoriousand other stuff, I'm like, Okay,
I think I know who this whatwhat what he's going to be about?
Right? And I heard these songsare the one song and I'm oh,
We're going all over the place here. I can't I can't put it
in a box, which is fine, which is great. I just I'm
like, okay, this is thisis telling me something new. Now,
(21:18):
let me just state for the recordthat I'm not doing this deliberately to call
attention to myself. At this stageof my life and in my career.
My mission statement is pretty pretty simple. We do what makes me happy.
And I know that sounds weird,and I'm glad that people are responding to
a positive way. But what Idecided to do was I've got this focused
(21:40):
mission with Nitro if I like that, and I can do that with those
guys and I love to do itwhen we do it, but with the
solo stuff, I want to sortof explore all the kinds of things.
That's what it's for. That's whatsolo records are for, to get to
expand a bit. There's there's peopleout there who do who have a main
band and then they do a solorecord it sounds like their main band,
especially if they're the singer. Youkind of don't get away from it.
(22:03):
And it's like, I get theidea you can work with different people,
but are you really if you're notcreating something that sounds different. I mean,
people can do what they want,but it's cool. That's what I'm
trying to say is when people stepaway from what they may be quote unquote
known for. Right. So yep, Now, let me just qualify when
I said about Mit doing something differentwith this guy here loves ac DC does
(22:26):
not want them to do anything different. Please, you do not want a
concept album from them. I don'twant to coustic album from them. I
don't want anything different. I lovethem, They're part of my DNA,
but I also love Queen, theBeatles, Bob Dylan, Neil Young,
the other spectrum from that people whodo all kinds of different specially especially Neil
Young. There's one that does abunch of no records sounds the same and
(22:48):
he definitely doesn't want that, right. Yeah, So there's a good example.
So Nitro is one thing. WhenI mean, if in when Nitro
does more records, that will beNitro. And if you listen to the
track I was alluding to a singlewe released, I believe in twenty thirteen.
What was it called again, It'scalled a. It's a song called
uranium, like you know, thenuclear material. Yeah, and it sounds
(23:11):
like nitro. Twenty thirteen and itwas glorious and we loved it and it
satisfied everybody. It sounded like nitro. But in twenty thirteen, beautiful thing.
And then I came and made myrecord, Myvocracy, and people were
like, WHOA, doesn't sound anythinglike nitro kind of a little bit,
but why you're doing something way faroff? Yeah? Yeah. And then
I did Blunt, which was asort of tribal organic, you know,
(23:36):
mysterious ethnic. It had no electricinstruments on it. The three songs that
I delivered for Blunt, not asingle damn electric instrument on it, And
that was deliberate. It wasn't somethingI was contriving. I gotta be honest
with each chet. I was followingthe tunes where they wanted to go.
And people will roll their eyes atthat and say, yeah, mister arty
party, but that's what I wasdoing the same way with myocracy those records.
(24:00):
That record came together on its ownand I followed it. So I
learned a long time ago to followthe records where they want to go,
and that was what I did withBlunt. And I'm working on something right
now that is completely different from Blunt, and it's probably going to be out
in early twenty three, and itis heavy, it is trippy. Think
of Black Sabbath meets Hendrix meets theBeach Boys. Oh wow. So that's
(24:25):
what I'm coming up with next.People may or may not like it,
but there you have it. Soyou know, Blunt was that particular sound
and this next record is going tobe something different just because I'm feeling it
and I'm following them where they wantto go. Yeah, no, that's
cool. I totally get that.I'm glad you're doing that too. It's
very cool to hear. Let meask you, Ben so you mentioned that
when you were starting doing these songsin twenty twenty, you didn't think you
(24:48):
had a record. Then all ofa sudden with Electric Talent you they said
you have a record here, andyou said, okay, now I have
a record here. Talk to meabout the title Mybocracy. Where did you
come up with that? What doesthat mean exactly? To be call it
mobile crazy? How do you howdo you get because I almost did at
one point. I'm sure if youin said it, I might have done
it. Hoops. So where didthe title come from? And how does
it kind of how does it fitin? Well? Do you have to
(25:11):
correct people when they say it wrong? Well, the beautiful thing is that
And I say this with as muchlove and appreciation and thankfulness as I can.
I've been talking with people all overthe world and they pronounce it multiple
ways, and that thrills me.Brother, That thrills me that I'm even
getting a chance to do that.So I sort of look at it.
Yeah, that's cool. Yeah,you're in Canada and I'm in the US,
(25:33):
and you know, just the simplefact that we're talking about our cool
interest together. It thrills me.And that's genuine. So now to answer
the question, I was putting therecord together, and honestly, I was
just kind of in about twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen. I was just recording
a bunch of songs because that's whatI was doing at the time, and
(25:55):
I found out I was gravitating towardsthese particular set of songs, about eight
or nine songs, and they allthematically had the same sort of thing going
on. You know, America andthe rest of the world was going through
some sideways, wacky times. Man. Yeah, So it was social,
it's political, it was economic.We were going you know, the technology
was creeping into our lives in aweird way. We were you know,
(26:18):
the vibe that everybody knows but hastrouble putting their fingers on was was creeping
up on me too, and itwas permeating just about everything I was doing.
And the songwriting. Again, Iwas following them. I was writing
tunes not deliberately. This is howthey were coming out. They were coming
out aggressive and heavy and thematically theywere similar. And if you listen to
all Freaks on the record, ifyou listen to Black, if you listen
(26:41):
to Victorious, and you know,Blood in My Eyes, they all are
minding the same thing that America's goingthrough, America and the world going through
some really dark, aggressive times,and that's what was That's what was happening.
And then it came to a pointwhere I had to think of a
title for the record after I decidedwhat songs I was going to put on
(27:03):
it, and I was kicking someideas around, and I shit you not,
I was thinking to different titles,and I stumbled upon this word movocracy,
and I knew love it, andI knew that by definition it means
rule by the masses, rule bythe mob, mob rules, you know,
Black Sabbata, Mob Rules. Lovethat album and I love that song.
(27:26):
That's part of my DNA for sure, those first two Black Sabbath albums
with Ronnie, I just loved them, and in any case, my biocracy.
As soon as I thought of that. And it's funny as I'm thinking
about reliving this, the hairs arestanding up on my arms again, because
that's what happened to me when Ithought, these records need a name,
(27:48):
or these songs need a name,a collective name, and what's it going
to be? And I kicked someother things around, which I won't mention,
but none of them really felt right. And I am here to tell
you that I said that word tomy myself and the hair on my arm
stood up and it still does.So whether or not people appreciate it or
have that same visceral response to itis relevant to me. It did that
(28:10):
for me, and it still doesthat for me. So a biocracy described
it. So I'm trying to bean artist that is doing what I want
to do, not because I'm anarrogant ass, but because I would think
that those people that I would liketo have in my audience would want that
(28:30):
from me. Because that's what Iwant from a great artist that I follow,
like Bob Dylan, Neil Young justoff the top of my head,
led Zeppelin. You know, Idon't want to dictate to them what they
should be doing. I'm coming tothem to see their perspective and to view
their art the way they want topresent it to the world. That's the
way. That's my relationship with theartists that I love, like the Dylan's
(28:51):
the world. I'm not going totell Bob, hey man, can you
give me blonde on Blonde again?Hey? Can I have another blood on
the track? Naw, that's nothow I roll with Bob, or with
Neil or or with Bloodzepp. That'swhat people are doing now though, if
you notice, if you look online, which I don't recommend you do it,
especially as as an artist putting theart out there, putting your work
out there. There's so many peopleout there so quick. We have too
much access to artists. You canyou can tweet the president if you want
(29:12):
to. You can talk to anybody, can say hey, you know this
sucks, you suck. I hateyou. You never you had to put
some real effort into that. Backin the eighties and ninets, you had
to go get on a plane,get on a train, and get on
a bus, go down and seethem at the show, just to ye
oh, hey you suck. Nowadays, anyone can critique and everyone's an armchair
quarterback, and it's just ridiculous,and it's just it gets in your head
(29:33):
if you let it, which youshouldn't. So it's just weird that people
can even have that opinion. Theywant you or they want you to write
a record that was twenty thirty yearsago. Why if you like that record
so much, you have it,go listen to it and they're done that
I might do it again, youknow, and I agree with you.
It's a weird place to be asan artist. I'm a big boy Chad.
I don't let that stuff spoke meat all. I'm confident enough in
(29:56):
my own creative voice again without soundingdul party party. That's my job.
My job is to be true tomyself and to deliver my perspective on it.
You know what they say in WillieWonka, we are the music makers,
were the dreamers of the dreams orwhatever. Yeah, yeah, My
role in this is to do that. That's what I'm inspired to do,
(30:18):
and frankly, you know, Ienjoy that back and forth. Times change,
social media technology has changed the waywe interact with artists, and there's
always some upside and some downside toit. I'm a Sunday side of the
Mountain kind of guy, and Ilove it and I read it and listen
to what people say. But atthe end of the day, I'm going
(30:41):
to do what I want to do. And even though I said earlier,
you know, please ac DC don'tmake a concept or an acoustic album.
If they decided to do it,I'll check it out and there's probably got
to be a damn good reason whythey're doing it. So those artists that
I trust, I trust them.You know, if Bob comes out or
if Neil comes out with a differentkind of album, I'm going to check
it out. Now. I'm goingto qualify that by saying a lot of
(31:02):
the stuff that they do, I'mnot digging the way I do some of
their other stuff. But hey,the relationship that we have with our artists.
So yeah, that's my posture.Yeah, it was fine, And
that's when I put out Blunt,you know, with the different sonics.
You know, people were asking thatquestion like, oh man, it's not
the same as the mobocracy. It'snot momocracy two point Oh I think there
(31:23):
you go get used to it.Yeah, go listen to that. I
mean obviously, I mean that's goodin one way. People are digging movocracy.
They can go back and listen toit and they can see what else
you're putting out in your call log. But if they don't like it,
hey, they always got myvocracy.So I don't see what the problem is.
But I'm just one person, Sojust one man and one room,
and there's room for a lot ofdifferent things, right, And like you
(31:44):
said, you can go back tosome of that style too, you never
know. Speaking of that. Afew minutes before we started talking, I
heard the song that you sent methis week, which is Freak Boutique,
and man, I love it.At first, when I first heard it,
I was like, oh, whereis this going? But then when
the core started coming, it getsstuck in your head. Angels Devils like
it. It's it's great. Wheredoes that come from? Is that something
(32:06):
that's not on the record that's brandnew? Is it coming on a record?
Where is freak Boutique, which Ireally love on People should check that
out too. Yeah, it's great, pretty much saying that because you're here,
because it's a great song. Ilove it. Well. First of
all, let me say that asI'm sincere when I say that is thrilling
feedback for a songwriter and the performer, and that is no joke. Man.
(32:29):
My goal was to satisfy myself,but then it satisfies with the people.
That is really cool. So Ican't say that enough. And that
thrill never wears off. I've beenmaking records for forty plus years. Yeah,
it never gets old. So freekBoutique. If you look closely is
on Blunt. Yes, and whatmy biocracy was was continued thematically on Blunt.
(32:54):
That was my idea was to havethe same conversation, continue the conversation
with my audience. But sonically theysongs wanted to be different. So Freak
Boutique and Head and there's another tunecalled Manchester Strawberry Blonde. They share similar
sonics, but they're thematically connected toMobocracy. Set all that to say that,
(33:15):
then Electric Talent said, hey,man, let's do a physical release
and tie these two records together likeyou want to. Because we released stuff
during the pandemic, it's all digitaland because of economics of small labels,
they wanted to dip THEO toe inand see how it goes. And then
Mobocracy was you know, I'm nottooting my own horn, but just for
(33:37):
statistical analysis here, Mobocracy was Grammyballaded, so really wow. Yeah,
but we had no physical and youknow, we it was all digital released
at the time because of the economicsof a small label. We're trying to
see its way through the pandemic anddo I appreciate that? So the Stephen
(34:00):
Electric Talent said, hey, let'suh, before you release your next record,
the one I was describing you,the trippy, heavy black Sabbath meets
Hendricks meet speech Boy thing. Hesaid, why don't we do a physical
release of Mobocracy and let's bring Bluntinto it because the songs are similar.
(34:20):
They have a creative connective tissue.And so we'll put all the Mobocracy and
all the Blunt on the record,and also what else you got that would
make it interesting and of value toyour audience. So I have some interesting
alternates and outtakes on it, andthat is called Mobocracy Deluxe, Okay,
and that's kind of silver their.Yeah, so that's out. Just released
(34:43):
that on the twenty eighth of October, and it comes out in the CD
right now. Are we going tobe doing any other form? Not sure.
We'll see how that goes. Ifyou're looking at if you're listening to
audio, he's got the CD upright now. But if you're looking at
the video, which I encourage youto do, he's got the Deluxeocracy,
which is all Red cover, whichis great. It stands out you're a
fan of Red, are you?Well the records? If you look at
(35:08):
the covers, you know again Ifollow it. I needed something that was
sort of aggressive and popping and inyour face. And red was the color
for Movocracy. Yeah, always feltred. And I got a little bit
of synesthesia, which is associating colorswith all kinds of emotion. So I
got a little touch of that,and I've always had it. So whenever
(35:28):
I was thinking of the record,I knew that it had to be a
red one. I didn't know howdeep or what the cue was, but
it was a red thing. I'vegot this next record and it feels like
it's black and white with maybe somepurple in it. Nice. That's for
another time. Is it going tobe a picture of you on the cover
at some point, smiling or notsmiling? We're going to get one of
those. Are too soon to tell. I don't want to do any spoilers,
(35:49):
but put a picture of you.Read up there, wax. This
should be fun. Well, likeI was saying earlier, I got a
face for radio. And at thispoint, Blunt has actually I think I'm
on there. Me and trol teethare standing together on the front of that
one. Yeah that's it. Yeah, that's true. That's true. And
it's it's also got this, uh, these sepia tones, these organic colors
(36:12):
go into it. And that's whatthat record felt like to me. It
felt organic and uh sepia toned.I'm not sure if that that makes any
sense. But again, my synesthesiasort of kicks in. So the next
record we'll see it feels like it'sblack and white but not monochromatic, maybe
with some purples in there. AndI'm seeing some metallic greens and some maybe
some gold. We'll see if ithappens, but this is where I'm feeling
(36:36):
it so far. We haven't putthe artwork together yet. Well, uh,
Freak Boutique, we needed a single. Uh well, obviously in these
times we need to have a visualcomponent and a quote unquote single to release
with it to any any album release. So that was part of it and
it was fun. And so Iput together video for Freak Boutique and it's
(37:01):
on my Biocracy Deluxe. And Imade the video, Yeah you saw it.
It was made with a filmmaker buddyof mine here in the Pennsylvania area.
His name is Alex Wagner. Alexand I made some some other stuff
together. From Blunt, we didManchester Strawberry Blonde, a short video to
(37:22):
that. That's the other song.I forgot about the Manchester Strawberry Blonde.
The other song I heard, andI couldn't think of it. But when
you mentioned, yeah, that's it'scoming back to me now it's that's a
cool record because that has nothing butdrums and singing on it. Yeah,
no, I know. I noticedthat. I was like, oh,
this is this is different. Yeah, I'm not sure what to expect,
but it's cool. People check thatout too. Yeah, and I appreciate
(37:45):
that. You know our particular genre. I'm a rock artist. I realized
that, and at my core that'swhat I do. But you know,
you listen to any Zeppelin album,you'll get some different stuff on there.
Man. Yeah, even if youknow I'm a big Haalen fan. You
listened to some of those Van Haalenrecords, Spanish Fly, Yeah, a
diver down record is something different whennot the covers, but if you listen
(38:07):
to the originals that are on there, it's something different going on. And
then you go to nineteen eighty fourand something really different was happening Penna where
you stand. So yeah, it'sa good example too. So Manchester Strawberry
Blonde felt like it needed to beon Blunt and it was it was written
around the end of Myvocracy, aswere you know, Freak Boutique and Head.
They were written sort of in thatsame time period, towards the end
(38:28):
of me making mobocracy, so theywere in communication with those songs, but
they wanted to be different. SoI said all that to say that Freak
Boutique it's it stands on its own. And basically what I wanted to say
was, you know, we're allkind of unique and in our way,
and we want to pursue our ownpassions and our own unique experience here on
(38:51):
the planet, and let's go ahead. And I'm going to encourage that,
but I'm also going to say,hey, there may be a price to
be paid for this. Yeah.There, And you know, I was
using the two obvious freaks of ourexperiences in the twentieth century, and obviously
before I was mentioning Gandhi in there, who was the ultimate freak who walked
(39:15):
his own path for sure. AndI also mentioned Christ Jesus in there,
and although obviously he wasn't from thetwentieth century, but walked his own path
if you believe that kind of stuff. So, yeah, this great message
is a great song. It justgets in your head too, and your
style of singing for that is justit fits it perfectly with the jungle guitar.
It's great. I just love it. It was a lot of fun
(39:36):
and I'm thrilled that you appreciate it, and thank you very much for sure.
I know you got another you gotother things coming up. My zoom
runs out real soon. I hatethis forty minute version of it. So
I want to ask you a coupleof quick things. The main thing being
live shows touring? Does that?What does that look like for you?
Are you do you do that?Have you done it in the Philadelphia area?
(39:58):
Have you planned on doing shows ifyou have? And what does the
live aspect come for you? Anddo you have one? Do you have
a plan for that? I do, and I'll be brief because we're limited
in time. I appreciate that.So I busk all the time. I
travel the world. I busk allover the world, and I could put
a fine point on that for anybodywants to know about it. Busking is
you know what that is? Playinglive without in the streets, out in
(40:21):
the streets. Do that all thetime? During the pandemic? Did that
a lot? Now? Live stuff. Yes, my band is in rehearsals
now. It's four piece. It'sgoing to be heavy, it's going to
be seren, it's going to beraw, punky, snotty, nasty.
We're going to re imagine the songson Bubocracy and Blunt and some that you
haven't heard yet. And probably let'ssee. First gig is going to be
(40:44):
in twenty twenty three in rehearsals now, and it'll probably be locally at first,
just to see how this is goingto play. You know, it's
any interest and we'll see how itgoes. But yeah, it's going to
be aggressive. And I am alive performing animal, and I did it
a lot whenever I was between Nitroand my solo stuff. I did the
(41:06):
busking all the time and I wasjust digging it. It scratched my itch
for as a performer, and itstrengthened my skin quite a bit too.
That's cool. That's cool to hearany Nitro songs gonna make it there,
even in an acoustic form or something. The planing. Do you have someone
who can sing there? Are yougonna give it a try or are you
just gonna leave that as a separateentity when you go out. You know,
we haven't been rehearsing a Nitro songsimply because I've got so much solo
(41:30):
stuff. We'll see if people arestarting to howl for it then yeah.
Honestly, I've been poking to guysin Nitro to play a little bit,
So maybe we'll just save those Nitroussongs for live Nitro gigs. That's cool,
that's good to hear and for Nitro. Is it still the same guys
from back in the days at all? You four guys, there's a different
people in the band, same singerwho's in the band. It's a beautiful
thing. We converge and diverge atsome weird intervals. Right now we're a
(41:55):
little bit diverged, but we'll convergeagain, I'm sure. Answer the question.
The voice of Nitro is Dana Confert, always was, always will be.
Lead guitarist is always John Hazel,Bassist is always Brad Gainsmore, and
me my Clark Kent. You'll seemy name on the back of the record
is Tim Wilson. I'm proud ofBlack. Black Mechanics helps me get out
(42:19):
of my own way and get outof my own head, just like it
did for Ringo it did for EltonJohn and Freddy Mercury. It's good enough.
Yeah, that's great. No,that's cool. That makes sense.
This makes perfect sense, Wax.I appreciate your time. I'm sorry it's
short. We'll do this again.You got new music coming out. There's
way more to get into with yourstory. I'd love to dig into,
but I appreciate the few minutes thatwe had to least get people who haven't
heard about you hear about your newrecord, the new solo stuff. It's
(42:42):
killer, it's great. People needto check it out. All the socials
it's there. And yeah, hopefullywe'll talk again real soon and next year.
It sounds like a big year comingup for you musically, whether it
be with Nitro or your solo stuff. It sounds like there's a lot coming
so I'm happy to hear about that. Thank you much, brother. I
can't overstay how much I appreciate whatyou do, not just because you do
it with me, but because youdo it for everybody. Thank you for
(43:05):
what you do. No, you'retoo kind man. Take care, we'll
talk soon, be well, Wax. Take care. You've been listening to
the Nobody's or Somebody's podcast with mechadvice and this podcast has been voted the
number one podcast by people that don'tvote.
Nobodies Are Somebodies. Hey, Everybody'sChad Advice. Welcome to another edition of
Nobody's Are Somebody's Podcast. It isa brand new year of twenty twenty three.
If you're just listening for the firsttime in twenty twenty three, or
if you're listening in the future,thank you so much for doing that.
(00:21):
In the future, we're flying carsexist. We've been saying that since the
seventies. You know, I lovedoing uber Eats, as many of you
know, because things are going wellin my life and it's a great hobby.
It's a great pastime that I enjoyoutside of regular work, and of
course doing the podcast, doing theeighties radio show, doing the Nobody's radio
(00:43):
station. I love doing these things. And one of these nights I was
out and about. I was pickingup a popular burger joint, No,
not that Burger joint, but fiveguys Burger joint. And I got in
my car after picking up the deliveryand I looked over at the the car
beside me, to the bit tothe to my left, and I like
(01:03):
when people have these little stickers thatsay stuff, you know what I mean.
Like sometimes people have stick figure stickers, like families they have little sayings
on their cars, not like bumperstickers, but those little stick on words
that you can put on the sideof your window or whatever. Right,
I was trying to read this lady'ssticker, and it says something about I
have kids. But then the writingbelow it was small, was too small
(01:23):
for me to read. So I'mreally trying to look at it. But
as I'm looking, I noticed thewoman in the car. I didn't realize
that, and she's looking at me, so I think she thought I was
staring at her or trying to likestare her down. So she just had
this like she just had to looklike like, what are you looking at?
Kind of thing, and I justwhatever, and I drove away.
I couldn't read the rest of it. Whatever, no big deal. So
(01:45):
I continue on with my Uber deliveries, and eventually I get to another burger
joint, Yes, that burger joint, and I pick up and I go
back outside to my car. Iput the food in my trunk with the
other crap I keep in my soyou know your food is safe. And
I uh. As I go togo around the side of my car,
(02:06):
who pulls up beside me this vehiclethe same one I was trying to read,
although I didn't quite realize it atthe time. But before I had
a chance to really react, sherolled down her window and she says to
me, Oh, it looks likeI have some new competition now. She's
an Uber driver Uber delivery driver.And I was kind of like taking it
back because A. I didn't inspecther to speak to me. B I
didn't inspect to ever see this personagain. And see I didn't quite know
(02:30):
what she was talking about. Butthen I realized quickly eat all this all
happened within two seconds in my brain. But of course I'm telling you now
in the story and just really makingit sound like it's a big, long
process, but it's not. I'mlike, oh, yeah, I said,
is there a lot of competition forUber? And she's like, oh,
I'm just joking. And then she, you know, when got her
food and I got on my carand left. But I wonder if she
(02:52):
thought that I was like staring herdown, thinking that like, oh my
god, there's more Uber drivers onthe road, like what are you doing
here? Like maybe she thought Iknew that she was an Uber driver,
and that I thought that because there'smore drivers there's less calls, which is
a thing, and there's more driverson the road. There's less chance for
you to get a call, right, which makes sense. Same with taxi
driving back in the day. Themore cars on the road, the more
(03:12):
dispatcher had to deviate the calls,divvy up the calls to different people,
right, and there's less chance forpeople to get as many calls, and
there's more drivers on the road.That makes sense. So maybe she thought
I was like, I don't know, staring down my competition. I don't
know. Maybe I'm overthinking. Itdoesn't matter. This story doesn't matter.
But you know what does matter,my guests coming up here. Wax Mechanics.
Happy to have his conversation, toget to know him. We've been
(03:37):
talking about having a conversation for alittle while previous to this, and now
we finally have a bit of astory. We only had a select amount
of minutes because he had another interviewto get to and I was a little
bit late trying to get my equipmentset up. So shame on me and
shame on him for having another interview. Just kidding, but I hope to
talk to him again in the nearfuture and have a more extensive conversation.
(03:57):
But here's a good thirty to fortyminutes with Wax Mcare, a Philadelphia great
musician in an old eighties cult bandcalled Nitro. Not the glam band Nitro,
but another one that you may notknow but you can get to know.
And he's a solo artist since thetwo thousands, released some music.
His latest record is a Biocracy,the Deluxe Edition on Electric Talent Records the
(04:19):
USA. It's out there now,check it out. Great songs, great
music. There's a Manchester Strawberry Blondeis one of the songs. Head.
Oh, there's a really great songthat's I heard it before we talked,
and it's just escaping me right now. It's a really cool song I love.
But yeah, it's one of myfavorite songs off the record. And
(04:40):
now I can't remember that's telling mesomething. But you'll hear all about it
here on my conversation with Wax Mechanics. Let's get to it now Here on
Nobody's Are Somebody's podcast with me UberDelivery chad Vice. Oh yeah, and
that was my Uber Stories for Kids, by the way, Stories of Uber
Eats for Kids with chad Vice.All right, mister Mechanics. It's good
(05:01):
to finally talk to you and haveyour conversation. How are you, man?
Heybody, Thanks for having me.This is really cool. We've been
looking forward to this for a while. Yeah, so I appreciate you.
Thanks. Yeah, yeah, forsure. There's a lot to get into.
There's so much about you that Idon't know, obviously, there's so
much. There's only a little bitI think I've discovered, so I can't
wait to get you to help mefill in those details. When I first
(05:25):
came across your music, I thinkthe first song I ever heard of yours
was a great, big anthemic songcalled Victorious Victoria that was sent out to
me. I don't know if itwas by you or your record label the
time. It's been a while ago, But is that where it started for
you? Where does where does WaxMechanics story start? Basically, let's go
right to the beginning and we'll gofrom there. Well, we're going to
(05:48):
try to be brief, so bearwith me. Here here's the abbreviated version.
As you can tell, I'm notin my early twenties. So I
started my music career in the earlyeighties with an American cult rock metal act
called Nitro, and we did somestuff in Pennsylvania on our own, and
(06:12):
then we got picked up by aEuropean label and we made some records and
that's where I sort of cut mychops. And fast forward to the two
thousands. After lots of playing invarious permutations of Nitro throughout the eighties and
the nineties, nearly two thousands,I hooked up with Electric Talent and did
(06:34):
a solo thing. So I waspart of and we have a bit of
a pedigree, small but real,and we started about We formed nineteen eighty
released our first record in early eightytwo, and we were coming at the
world kind of like the Metallic obviouslynot of that stature, but that's where
(06:56):
it happened. So I was oneof the primary songwriters of and as songwriters
are wont to do, we justkeep on writing. So after some songs
piled up, I hit studio againsort of solo and stretched out and kind
of did it seriously and made aserious record in twenty twenty called Movocracy,
(07:23):
and that was released by Philadelphia labelElectric Talent, and Victorious is on that.
Let me ask you, cause youmentioned your band Nitro. That's not
to be confused with the late eightiesAmerican Los Angeles band with Jim Gillette Nitro.
That's not the same band. Correct, That's correct. Let me just
(07:44):
qualify that by saying we started innineteen eighty and we were sort of new
wave of British heavy metal influenced threepiece loud Seiran slamming certainly not glam and
although I like the La Nitro andI know Jim a little bit, were
not the same. They came outof LA and did the whole Gland thing,
which was really cool for them,but that certainly not us. And
(08:07):
we weren't trying to pass ourselves offas them, and I know they weren't
trying to best themselves was us?So two different things. Common word,
I don't know how did that workwith the licensing, like the name Brian,
How did you did they like youhad it first? Did you guys
have it? Like? How didthat work? Well? There was no
there's no real squabble. I mean, we were relatively small time frankly,
(08:30):
you know, independent, scrappy,and by the time they came up,
we had stopped making records at thatpoint. So some I won't go through
the gory detail. But in short, we took a break and stopped recording
and stopped touring and still hung outas friends and played in different permutations,
(08:50):
and we knew about them and wewere digging them because we liked that kind
of stuff as well as all otherkinds of things. So we never were
in contact with him on a busines. Yeah, and Jim's voice well back
in the day for sure. Imean there's videos of them of the of
him out there breaking glass with hisvoice. There's a big deal about that.
They never got over the hump themselves. They didn't get to a major
(09:11):
thing, they didn't have a big, huge hit. Maybe a Freight Train
might have been their best known songon MTV, but they never made over
the hump. They came at theend of the other wave of that too,
so I mean, it just neverseemed to work out. So it
can kind of you can see thatparallel there a little bit between the two
bands, but different sounds obviously,just for clarity for people who don't know.
If they think, oh, you'retalking about Jim Joe, let's beend
no know we're talking about which maybepeople don't know, but it's good to
(09:33):
dig into that maybe get some attention. Did you guys have records out there
from your Nitro? Do you havelike music that's still available people can check
out? Sure? Long story shortis, if folks bump up against me,
they can find links to the there'sa Nitro band camp site that we
can get all those kinds of things. So we did some independently released stuff,
(09:56):
and then we were signed to MascoleumRecords, which sort of the a
boutique European label that did all kindsof fun stuff in the early eighties,
and then later on, like inthe early two thousands, we did some
releases with some other record companies boilBoy. So there's about five records floating
(10:20):
around out there that people can getif they want to. Simply google Nitro
and you'll find us. The albumsare called Lethal Volatile Activity. There's a
compilation called Lethal Dose. There's anotherone called do You Want to Rock?
So okay, yeah, we gota lot of stuff, but we had
a lot of stuff in the studioand a lot of reissues and digging up
(10:45):
some rarities that kind of stuff,anthology, so mostly new way for British
heavy metal, old school stuff thatwe're really proud of and a lot of
fun, a lot of fun andcertainly not the Nitro from La but we
liked that stuff too, and therewas never any anything but love between us.
And I'm digging that stuff too.It's good to hear. So so
(11:07):
let me get let me get yourtimeline correct. Then, So when you
guys broke up, I'm going tosay it's the late eighties' early nineties for
your Nitro. Then twenty twenty isyour solo record. That's a long period
of time between as far as musicaloutput, unless I'm missing something. So
what kept you busy through the ninetiesand early two thousands musically? What were
you doing or were you completely outof music? Where you checked out?
(11:28):
Well it sounds kind of arty party, but the reality is that I just
after Nitro. I you know,I was interested in other things, so
I had another career and put musicon the back burner. You know,
we didn't go on to become Metallica, so I know a lot of people
did. Yeah, yeah, soyou know that was the original plan.
(11:52):
So Mike Clark kent is as anengineer, I was always interested in that
kind of stuff. Nitro guitarist JohnHazel was also an engineer. We remained,
We remained buddies. We played alot, we did some recording,
played with other bands, did somelocal stuff. So we stopped trying to
be you know, rock stars,got a real job, but musicians and
(12:16):
songwriters just keep plowing along. Andthat was with great joy, had families
and still remain friends. And thenI was John and I were writing most
of the material for Nitro. Iwas predominantly driving a lot of that creatively,
So I just kept on writing andthe songs piled up and got a
(12:39):
little bit of an itch and somemade some connections in the Philadelphia area to
some cool studios and producers and startedto hit the studio. In between the
end of Nitro formally, which wasprobably about eighty seven and about two thousand
and eight two thousand and nine,I was simply just live in a different
(13:00):
life and playing a little bit,kicking around and bands and having some fun
and not doing it, not doingit too seriously. And then I had
a little more time and found thisoutlet here in Philadelphia that I wanted to
make some real records again, andI wanted to do it from a solo
perspective, not you know, Nitrois not done or defunct or broken up.
(13:22):
We just stopped recording and you knowwe we in twenty thirteen we released
a new single by the Way tothose records, So I gotta check that
out. Yeah, that's kind ofa skating to check go back and check
that out for people listening and forme and myself, I'm gonna go back
and have a dig into that.That sounds cool. It was a lot
of fun, and you know,it was cool to revisit that. And
(13:43):
so what I what I kind ofdo with Nitro is very focused. We
have a really narrowly defined mission statementwith Nitro. You know, it is
a new way for British heavy metalinfluence. Focused through the is the four
guys in the band, and it'sa democracy and there is a very specific
(14:05):
mission there. So we had fundoing that. I still like to do
that, and boy, parts ofmy head really need that kind of thing.
But then when I was doing myown solo stuff, I could expand
a little bit and stretch out anddo all kinds of different stuff and it
was more of a dictatorship. Sothat's kind of fun. So I went
about Yeah, in the two thousands, the songs piled up, and probably
(14:28):
about twenty fifteen, the songs startedto coalesce and focus on a particular subject,
you know, a vibe for lackof better term, that we started
feeling in twenty sixteen up through twentytwenty, and that really did put the
focus on the songs, and that'swhat really, you know, everything kind
of came together and coalesced nicely,and I said I've got a record here,
(14:50):
and Electric Towns said you've got arecord here. So bang zoom,
there we were. Did you findthem or did they find you? I
found them, and because they werein Philly, and I was really interested
in local labels, and it wasjust I kind of kept my finger on
the pulse of what was going on. And I didn't know that there was
(15:11):
this fledgling metal label and I said, these guys are cool. And I
checked out some of their music andI said I like this, and I
reached out to him, and theguy who heads the labels named Stephen Burdick,
yes, and I said, hey, man, I really like what
you're doing and here's what I'm upto. And even though my stuff was
(15:31):
slightly different than the most of thefair on Electric Talent He's like, hey,
let's do a record. I said, I'm in were you? I
know, obviously you're singing on yourstuff. You're the singer in Nitro as
well too, Right, what areyou saying? No? I was not,
I was. I was writing stuffon guitar. I was. My
role in the band was as thedrummer and a backup vocalist. Singer.
(15:54):
Is and is still the voice ofNitro is a fella named Dana kanferda On
for is this wonderful, funky organicbrew of a little bit of Ted Nugent,
a little bit of Steven Tyler,a little bit of Rob Halford,
a little bit of you know itwas he brought to it. Classic front
(16:18):
man of the late seventies early eighties, great guy, super dude. Still
my brother loved Dana, love therest of the guys in the band.
But yeah, he was doing allthe singing. Because I was going to
ask you then it sounds like youwere even doing some singing back then.
But now, of course it's you. You're the front guy. It's it's
your it's your singing, it's yourit's your it's your vision. How did
you feel doing this on your ownvocally? Did you feel like, now
(16:41):
you're stepping in front of the center, did you feel confident that, did
you have to kind of work atthat? Did you always want to be
the one singing your material? Howdid that come together? Well, everything
is in service chat of the songwriting. I mean that sounds kind of artie
party, but I'm just going tobe honest about it. My gig was
always as a songwriter. I playeddrums because I was a songwriter and were
writing cool songs. And I wasin my teens and early twenties at the
(17:03):
time, so that's like a sportingevent, you know. It wasn't so
much art as it was like asport. So I was an athlete and
still am. And I really respondedto that. I could play guitar and
harmonica and was writing. And so, to answer the question, a nitro
was fun because I served a differentrole and I was singing backing vocals there
too, and because we had thisreally cool unit that we landed on with
(17:26):
nitro. I really enjoyed having myrole as the drummer because that satisfied me,
and then I could write the songson guitar that satisfied me. I'd
go into the studio, cut backingvocals that satisfied me, So there was
nothing really lacking in Nitro for me. As a matter of fact, it
was not much different than what Istarted doing with my solo stuff stepping out
front. You know, I'm asongwriter and I wanted to do a solo
(17:49):
thing because these particular songs, Ithought I could probably do these pretty good.
And I had no great desire tobe a front man, had no
great desire to do any of that. It was all about the song.
And I know that sounds weird andcliche whatever, but there you have it.
I wrote these cool songs and Ithought I can do these, and
(18:11):
played guitar on some of them,played drums on all of them, did
backing vocals, did lead vocals,even shared some of the writing with some
buddies in mind. So if youlook closely at the credits on the record,
you'll see that most of them werewritten by me, but I did
share some of that, surrounded myselfwith some really cool pals that had an
open mind and said, hey,we'll folly anywhere and there we are.
(18:32):
That's good. That's good to hearsomewhere in the middle of that, and
I don't know, because I kindof get things mixed up because I get
a lot of music. Let's behonest. I get a lot of things
from Electric Talent, but from alot of record labels, so things come
my way. But I'm pretty sureI saw from you recently, maybe within
the last year. There was aEP that was done with you another band,
a split EP. I think headwas named it or one of the
songs on it. I think Icould be wrong. Was done? Was
(18:56):
that done just in between? Justafter? Is that the most recent thing?
Or where does that been? Inyour splitty peet with the other band
after the name of the band too, I think it's troll Teeth, Is
that correct? You got a greatmemory, brother, Yeah, that's right,
thank you. So. Yeah.The sequence of events was I was
with Nitro, got a real life, kept writing, hooked up with Electric
Talent, made Mobocracy, which wassix song EPTE with heavy snarling rock guitars,
(19:22):
bassed trump and other sort of electronicindustrial stuff thrown in there for fun.
Yeah, very focused on a scene, but it was a heavy snarl
and slam and rock record that peopleknow me for relative to Nitro. Then
I was asked after Mobocracy came outElectric Towns said hey, man, what
(19:42):
do you want to do next?I said, well, what can we
do? And they offered up thisidea of doing a split and I said,
I'm cool. Never did one ofthose. I like that idea.
It's not a compilation, it's alittle more focused. So I said,
well, who can I do itwith? And they said, well,
here are all the bands on rosterAlan you want one to be one with
troll Teeth And I said, wow, this could not be cool or because
(20:07):
I knew the songs I was writing, and I knew the songs I was
going to release next, and Iknew what Troll Teeth did, which was
really cool, really prescient, reallythoughtful, heavy stone or interesting stuff with
Moe and the boys that I liked, but it was dramatically different than what
I was writing at the time.So we got together and they brought two
songs on the EP, which iscalled Blunt Yes, and that was released
(20:32):
in twenty twenty one. I broughta handful of songs. Two songs made
it. I had some leftover,so there's basically three songs that I brought
to Blunt Now. The interesting partof this was really cool from my perspective.
It allowed me to bring songs tothis EP that were connected to Mumocracy
thematically but were sonically different. Iknow that sounds weird, and I'll be
(20:56):
burning. I get that because that'sexactly how That's exactly how it sentenced me.
I heard them like, oh,this is different. This is not
right. Because when I heard Victoriousand other stuff, I'm like, Okay,
I think I know who this whatwhat what he's going to be about?
Right? And I heard these songsare the one song and I'm oh,
We're going all over the place here. I can't I can't put it
in a box, which is fine, which is great. I just I'm
like, okay, this is thisis telling me something new. Now,
(21:18):
let me just state for the recordthat I'm not doing this deliberately to call
attention to myself. At this stageof my life and in my career.
My mission statement is pretty pretty simple. We do what makes me happy.
And I know that sounds weird,and I'm glad that people are responding to
a positive way. But what Idecided to do was I've got this focused
(21:40):
mission with Nitro if I like that, and I can do that with those
guys and I love to do itwhen we do it, but with the
solo stuff, I want to sortof explore all the kinds of things.
That's what it's for. That's whatsolo records are for, to get to
expand a bit. There's there's peopleout there who do who have a main
band and then they do a solorecord it sounds like their main band,
especially if they're the singer. Youkind of don't get away from it.
(22:03):
And it's like, I get theidea you can work with different people,
but are you really if you're notcreating something that sounds different. I mean,
people can do what they want,but it's cool. That's what I'm
trying to say is when people stepaway from what they may be quote unquote
known for. Right. So yep, Now, let me just qualify when
I said about Mit doing something differentwith this guy here loves ac DC does
(22:26):
not want them to do anything different. Please, you do not want a
concept album from them. I don'twant to coustic album from them. I
don't want anything different. I lovethem, They're part of my DNA,
but I also love Queen, theBeatles, Bob Dylan, Neil Young,
the other spectrum from that people whodo all kinds of different specially especially Neil
Young. There's one that does abunch of no records sounds the same and
(22:48):
he definitely doesn't want that, right. Yeah, So there's a good example.
So Nitro is one thing. WhenI mean, if in when Nitro
does more records, that will beNitro. And if you listen to the
track I was alluding to a singlewe released, I believe in twenty thirteen.
What was it called again, It'scalled a. It's a song called
uranium, like you know, thenuclear material. Yeah, and it sounds
(23:11):
like nitro. Twenty thirteen and itwas glorious and we loved it and it
satisfied everybody. It sounded like nitro. But in twenty thirteen, beautiful thing.
And then I came and made myrecord, Myvocracy, and people were
like, WHOA, doesn't sound anythinglike nitro kind of a little bit,
but why you're doing something way faroff? Yeah? Yeah. And then
I did Blunt, which was asort of tribal organic, you know,
(23:36):
mysterious ethnic. It had no electricinstruments on it. The three songs that
I delivered for Blunt, not asingle damn electric instrument on it, And
that was deliberate. It wasn't somethingI was contriving. I gotta be honest
with each chet. I was followingthe tunes where they wanted to go.
And people will roll their eyes atthat and say, yeah, mister arty
party, but that's what I wasdoing the same way with myocracy those records.
(24:00):
That record came together on its ownand I followed it. So I
learned a long time ago to followthe records where they want to go,
and that was what I did withBlunt. And I'm working on something right
now that is completely different from Blunt, and it's probably going to be out
in early twenty three, and itis heavy, it is trippy. Think
of Black Sabbath meets Hendrix meets theBeach Boys. Oh wow. So that's
(24:25):
what I'm coming up with next.People may or may not like it,
but there you have it. Soyou know, Blunt was that particular sound
and this next record is going tobe something different just because I'm feeling it
and I'm following them where they wantto go. Yeah, no, that's
cool. I totally get that.I'm glad you're doing that too. It's
very cool to hear. Let meask you, Ben so you mentioned that
when you were starting doing these songsin twenty twenty, you didn't think you
(24:48):
had a record. Then all ofa sudden with Electric Talent you they said
you have a record here, andyou said, okay, now I have
a record here. Talk to meabout the title Mybocracy. Where did you
come up with that? What doesthat mean exactly? To be call it
mobile crazy? How do you howdo you get because I almost did at
one point. I'm sure if youin said it, I might have done
it. Hoops. So where didthe title come from? And how does
it kind of how does it fitin? Well? Do you have to
(25:11):
correct people when they say it wrong? Well, the beautiful thing is that
And I say this with as muchlove and appreciation and thankfulness as I can.
I've been talking with people all overthe world and they pronounce it multiple
ways, and that thrills me.Brother, That thrills me that I'm even
getting a chance to do that.So I sort of look at it.
Yeah, that's cool. Yeah,you're in Canada and I'm in the US,
(25:33):
and you know, just the simplefact that we're talking about our cool
interest together. It thrills me.And that's genuine. So now to answer
the question, I was putting therecord together, and honestly, I was
just kind of in about twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen. I was just recording
a bunch of songs because that's whatI was doing at the time, and
(25:55):
I found out I was gravitating towardsthese particular set of songs, about eight
or nine songs, and they allthematically had the same sort of thing going
on. You know, America andthe rest of the world was going through
some sideways, wacky times. Man. Yeah, So it was social,
it's political, it was economic.We were going you know, the technology
was creeping into our lives in aweird way. We were you know,
(26:18):
the vibe that everybody knows but hastrouble putting their fingers on was was creeping
up on me too, and itwas permeating just about everything I was doing.
And the songwriting. Again, Iwas following them. I was writing
tunes not deliberately. This is howthey were coming out. They were coming
out aggressive and heavy and thematically theywere similar. And if you listen to
all Freaks on the record, ifyou listen to Black, if you listen
(26:41):
to Victorious, and you know,Blood in My Eyes, they all are
minding the same thing that America's goingthrough, America and the world going through
some really dark, aggressive times,and that's what was That's what was happening.
And then it came to a pointwhere I had to think of a
title for the record after I decidedwhat songs I was going to put on
(27:03):
it, and I was kicking someideas around, and I shit you not,
I was thinking to different titles,and I stumbled upon this word movocracy,
and I knew love it, andI knew that by definition it means
rule by the masses, rule bythe mob, mob rules, you know,
Black Sabbata, Mob Rules. Lovethat album and I love that song.
(27:26):
That's part of my DNA for sure, those first two Black Sabbath albums
with Ronnie, I just loved them, and in any case, my biocracy.
As soon as I thought of that. And it's funny as I'm thinking
about reliving this, the hairs arestanding up on my arms again, because
that's what happened to me when Ithought, these records need a name,
(27:48):
or these songs need a name,a collective name, and what's it going
to be? And I kicked someother things around, which I won't mention,
but none of them really felt right. And I am here to tell
you that I said that word tomy myself and the hair on my arm
stood up and it still does.So whether or not people appreciate it or
have that same visceral response to itis relevant to me. It did that
(28:10):
for me, and it still doesthat for me. So a biocracy described
it. So I'm trying to bean artist that is doing what I want
to do, not because I'm anarrogant ass, but because I would think
that those people that I would liketo have in my audience would want that
(28:30):
from me. Because that's what Iwant from a great artist that I follow,
like Bob Dylan, Neil Young justoff the top of my head,
led Zeppelin. You know, Idon't want to dictate to them what they
should be doing. I'm coming tothem to see their perspective and to view
their art the way they want topresent it to the world. That's the
way. That's my relationship with theartists that I love, like the Dylan's
(28:51):
the world. I'm not going totell Bob, hey man, can you
give me blonde on Blonde again?Hey? Can I have another blood on
the track? Naw, that's nothow I roll with Bob, or with
Neil or or with Bloodzepp. That'swhat people are doing now though, if
you notice, if you look online, which I don't recommend you do it,
especially as as an artist putting theart out there, putting your work
out there. There's so many peopleout there so quick. We have too
much access to artists. You canyou can tweet the president if you want
(29:12):
to. You can talk to anybody, can say hey, you know this
sucks, you suck. I hateyou. You never you had to put
some real effort into that. Backin the eighties and ninets, you had
to go get on a plane,get on a train, and get on
a bus, go down and seethem at the show, just to ye
oh, hey you suck. Nowadays, anyone can critique and everyone's an armchair
quarterback, and it's just ridiculous,and it's just it gets in your head
(29:33):
if you let it, which youshouldn't. So it's just weird that people
can even have that opinion. Theywant you or they want you to write
a record that was twenty thirty yearsago. Why if you like that record
so much, you have it,go listen to it and they're done that
I might do it again, youknow, and I agree with you.
It's a weird place to be asan artist. I'm a big boy Chad.
I don't let that stuff spoke meat all. I'm confident enough in
(29:56):
my own creative voice again without soundingdul party party. That's my job.
My job is to be true tomyself and to deliver my perspective on it.
You know what they say in WillieWonka, we are the music makers,
were the dreamers of the dreams orwhatever. Yeah, yeah, My
role in this is to do that. That's what I'm inspired to do,
(30:18):
and frankly, you know, Ienjoy that back and forth. Times change,
social media technology has changed the waywe interact with artists, and there's
always some upside and some downside toit. I'm a Sunday side of the
Mountain kind of guy, and Ilove it and I read it and listen
to what people say. But atthe end of the day, I'm going
(30:41):
to do what I want to do. And even though I said earlier,
you know, please ac DC don'tmake a concept or an acoustic album.
If they decided to do it,I'll check it out and there's probably got
to be a damn good reason whythey're doing it. So those artists that
I trust, I trust them.You know, if Bob comes out or
if Neil comes out with a differentkind of album, I'm going to check
it out. Now. I'm goingto qualify that by saying a lot of
(31:02):
the stuff that they do, I'mnot digging the way I do some of
their other stuff. But hey,the relationship that we have with our artists.
So yeah, that's my posture.Yeah, it was fine, And
that's when I put out Blunt,you know, with the different sonics.
You know, people were asking thatquestion like, oh man, it's not
the same as the mobocracy. It'snot momocracy two point Oh I think there
(31:23):
you go get used to it.Yeah, go listen to that. I
mean obviously, I mean that's goodin one way. People are digging movocracy.
They can go back and listen toit and they can see what else
you're putting out in your call log. But if they don't like it,
hey, they always got myvocracy.So I don't see what the problem is.
But I'm just one person, Sojust one man and one room,
and there's room for a lot ofdifferent things, right, And like you
(31:44):
said, you can go back tosome of that style too, you never
know. Speaking of that. Afew minutes before we started talking, I
heard the song that you sent methis week, which is Freak Boutique,
and man, I love it.At first, when I first heard it,
I was like, oh, whereis this going? But then when
the core started coming, it getsstuck in your head. Angels Devils like
it. It's it's great. Wheredoes that come from? Is that something
(32:06):
that's not on the record that's brandnew? Is it coming on a record?
Where is freak Boutique, which Ireally love on People should check that
out too. Yeah, it's great, pretty much saying that because you're here,
because it's a great song. Ilove it. Well. First of
all, let me say that asI'm sincere when I say that is thrilling
feedback for a songwriter and the performer, and that is no joke. Man.
(32:29):
My goal was to satisfy myself,but then it satisfies with the people.
That is really cool. So Ican't say that enough. And that
thrill never wears off. I've beenmaking records for forty plus years. Yeah,
it never gets old. So freekBoutique. If you look closely is
on Blunt. Yes, and whatmy biocracy was was continued thematically on Blunt.
(32:54):
That was my idea was to havethe same conversation, continue the conversation
with my audience. But sonically theysongs wanted to be different. So Freak
Boutique and Head and there's another tunecalled Manchester Strawberry Blonde. They share similar
sonics, but they're thematically connected toMobocracy. Set all that to say that,
(33:15):
then Electric Talent said, hey,man, let's do a physical release
and tie these two records together likeyou want to. Because we released stuff
during the pandemic, it's all digitaland because of economics of small labels,
they wanted to dip THEO toe inand see how it goes. And then
Mobocracy was you know, I'm nottooting my own horn, but just for
(33:37):
statistical analysis here, Mobocracy was Grammyballaded, so really wow. Yeah,
but we had no physical and youknow, we it was all digital released
at the time because of the economicsof a small label. We're trying to
see its way through the pandemic anddo I appreciate that? So the Stephen
(34:00):
Electric Talent said, hey, let'suh, before you release your next record,
the one I was describing you,the trippy, heavy black Sabbath meets
Hendricks meet speech Boy thing. Hesaid, why don't we do a physical
release of Mobocracy and let's bring Bluntinto it because the songs are similar.
(34:20):
They have a creative connective tissue.And so we'll put all the Mobocracy and
all the Blunt on the record,and also what else you got that would
make it interesting and of value toyour audience. So I have some interesting
alternates and outtakes on it, andthat is called Mobocracy Deluxe, Okay,
and that's kind of silver their.Yeah, so that's out. Just released
(34:43):
that on the twenty eighth of October, and it comes out in the CD
right now. Are we going tobe doing any other form? Not sure.
We'll see how that goes. Ifyou're looking at if you're listening to
audio, he's got the CD upright now. But if you're looking at
the video, which I encourage youto do, he's got the Deluxeocracy,
which is all Red cover, whichis great. It stands out you're a
fan of Red, are you?Well the records? If you look at
(35:08):
the covers, you know again Ifollow it. I needed something that was
sort of aggressive and popping and inyour face. And red was the color
for Movocracy. Yeah, always feltred. And I got a little bit
of synesthesia, which is associating colorswith all kinds of emotion. So I
got a little touch of that,and I've always had it. So whenever
(35:28):
I was thinking of the record,I knew that it had to be a
red one. I didn't know howdeep or what the cue was, but
it was a red thing. I'vegot this next record and it feels like
it's black and white with maybe somepurple in it. Nice. That's for
another time. Is it going tobe a picture of you on the cover
at some point, smiling or notsmiling? We're going to get one of
those. Are too soon to tell. I don't want to do any spoilers,
(35:49):
but put a picture of you.Read up there, wax. This
should be fun. Well, likeI was saying earlier, I got a
face for radio. And at thispoint, Blunt has actually I think I'm
on there. Me and trol teethare standing together on the front of that
one. Yeah that's it. Yeah, that's true. That's true. And
it's it's also got this, uh, these sepia tones, these organic colors
(36:12):
go into it. And that's whatthat record felt like to me. It
felt organic and uh sepia toned.I'm not sure if that that makes any
sense. But again, my synesthesiasort of kicks in. So the next
record we'll see it feels like it'sblack and white but not monochromatic, maybe
with some purples in there. AndI'm seeing some metallic greens and some maybe
some gold. We'll see if ithappens, but this is where I'm feeling
(36:36):
it so far. We haven't putthe artwork together yet. Well, uh,
Freak Boutique, we needed a single. Uh well, obviously in these
times we need to have a visualcomponent and a quote unquote single to release
with it to any any album release. So that was part of it and
it was fun. And so Iput together video for Freak Boutique and it's
(37:01):
on my Biocracy Deluxe. And Imade the video, Yeah you saw it.
It was made with a filmmaker buddyof mine here in the Pennsylvania area.
His name is Alex Wagner. Alexand I made some some other stuff
together. From Blunt, we didManchester Strawberry Blonde, a short video to
(37:22):
that. That's the other song.I forgot about the Manchester Strawberry Blonde.
The other song I heard, andI couldn't think of it. But when
you mentioned, yeah, that's it'scoming back to me now it's that's a
cool record because that has nothing butdrums and singing on it. Yeah,
no, I know. I noticedthat. I was like, oh,
this is this is different. Yeah, I'm not sure what to expect,
but it's cool. People check thatout too. Yeah, and I appreciate
(37:45):
that. You know our particular genre. I'm a rock artist. I realized
that, and at my core that'swhat I do. But you know,
you listen to any Zeppelin album,you'll get some different stuff on there.
Man. Yeah, even if youknow I'm a big Haalen fan. You
listened to some of those Van Haalenrecords, Spanish Fly, Yeah, a
diver down record is something different whennot the covers, but if you listen
(38:07):
to the originals that are on there, it's something different going on. And
then you go to nineteen eighty fourand something really different was happening Penna where
you stand. So yeah, it'sa good example too. So Manchester Strawberry
Blonde felt like it needed to beon Blunt and it was it was written
around the end of Myvocracy, aswere you know, Freak Boutique and Head.
They were written sort of in thatsame time period, towards the end
(38:28):
of me making mobocracy, so theywere in communication with those songs, but
they wanted to be different. SoI said all that to say that Freak
Boutique it's it stands on its own. And basically what I wanted to say
was, you know, we're allkind of unique and in our way,
and we want to pursue our ownpassions and our own unique experience here on
(38:51):
the planet, and let's go ahead. And I'm going to encourage that,
but I'm also going to say,hey, there may be a price to
be paid for this. Yeah.There, And you know, I was
using the two obvious freaks of ourexperiences in the twentieth century, and obviously
before I was mentioning Gandhi in there, who was the ultimate freak who walked
(39:15):
his own path for sure. AndI also mentioned Christ Jesus in there,
and although obviously he wasn't from thetwentieth century, but walked his own path
if you believe that kind of stuff. So, yeah, this great message
is a great song. It justgets in your head too, and your
style of singing for that is justit fits it perfectly with the jungle guitar.
It's great. I just love it. It was a lot of fun
(39:36):
and I'm thrilled that you appreciate it, and thank you very much for sure.
I know you got another you gotother things coming up. My zoom
runs out real soon. I hatethis forty minute version of it. So
I want to ask you a coupleof quick things. The main thing being
live shows touring? Does that?What does that look like for you?
Are you do you do that?Have you done it in the Philadelphia area?
(39:58):
Have you planned on doing shows ifyou have? And what does the
live aspect come for you? Anddo you have one? Do you have
a plan for that? I do, and I'll be brief because we're limited
in time. I appreciate that.So I busk all the time. I
travel the world. I busk allover the world, and I could put
a fine point on that for anybodywants to know about it. Busking is
you know what that is? Playinglive without in the streets, out in
(40:21):
the streets. Do that all thetime? During the pandemic? Did that
a lot? Now? Live stuff. Yes, my band is in rehearsals
now. It's four piece. It'sgoing to be heavy, it's going to
be seren, it's going to beraw, punky, snotty, nasty.
We're going to re imagine the songson Bubocracy and Blunt and some that you
haven't heard yet. And probably let'ssee. First gig is going to be
(40:44):
in twenty twenty three in rehearsals now, and it'll probably be locally at first,
just to see how this is goingto play. You know, it's
any interest and we'll see how itgoes. But yeah, it's going to
be aggressive. And I am alive performing animal, and I did it
a lot whenever I was between Nitroand my solo stuff. I did the
(41:06):
busking all the time and I wasjust digging it. It scratched my itch
for as a performer, and itstrengthened my skin quite a bit too.
That's cool. That's cool to hearany Nitro songs gonna make it there,
even in an acoustic form or something. The planing. Do you have someone
who can sing there? Are yougonna give it a try or are you
just gonna leave that as a separateentity when you go out. You know,
we haven't been rehearsing a Nitro songsimply because I've got so much solo
(41:30):
stuff. We'll see if people arestarting to howl for it then yeah.
Honestly, I've been poking to guysin Nitro to play a little bit,
So maybe we'll just save those Nitroussongs for live Nitro gigs. That's cool,
that's good to hear and for Nitro. Is it still the same guys
from back in the days at all? You four guys, there's a different
people in the band, same singerwho's in the band. It's a beautiful
thing. We converge and diverge atsome weird intervals. Right now we're a
(41:55):
little bit diverged, but we'll convergeagain, I'm sure. Answer the question.
The voice of Nitro is Dana Confert, always was, always will be.
Lead guitarist is always John Hazel,Bassist is always Brad Gainsmore, and
me my Clark Kent. You'll seemy name on the back of the record
is Tim Wilson. I'm proud ofBlack. Black Mechanics helps me get out
(42:19):
of my own way and get outof my own head, just like it
did for Ringo it did for EltonJohn and Freddy Mercury. It's good enough.
Yeah, that's great. No,that's cool. That makes sense.
This makes perfect sense, Wax.I appreciate your time. I'm sorry it's
short. We'll do this again.You got new music coming out. There's
way more to get into with yourstory. I'd love to dig into,
but I appreciate the few minutes thatwe had to least get people who haven't
heard about you hear about your newrecord, the new solo stuff. It's
(42:42):
killer, it's great. People needto check it out. All the socials
it's there. And yeah, hopefullywe'll talk again real soon and next year.
It sounds like a big year comingup for you musically, whether it
be with Nitro or your solo stuff. It sounds like there's a lot coming
so I'm happy to hear about that. Thank you much, brother. I
can't overstay how much I appreciate whatyou do, not just because you do
it with me, but because youdo it for everybody. Thank you for
(43:05):
what you do. No, you'retoo kind man. Take care, we'll
talk soon, be well, Wax. Take care. You've been listening to
the Nobody's or Somebody's podcast with mechadvice and this podcast has been voted the
number one podcast by people that don'tvote.
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